The present invention relates to an operation panel having keys each assigned a function related to an operation of an associated apparatus as well as an image forming apparatus provided with such an operation panel. Particularly, the invention relates to the art of improving the safety and operability for visually handicapped persons operating such an image forming apparatus.
In recent years, social activities of visually handicapped persons have been expanding increasingly. For this reason, it has been requested that the operability of apparatus in general be improved in order to allow visually handicapped persons (including weak-eyed persons and totally blind persons) to operate such apparatus safely and easily (refer to Section 508 of U.S. Rehabilitation Act for example).
Presently, makers of apparatus are selling manufactured products improved in safety and operability for visually handicapped persons according to their respective own standards that are each claimed as universal design by such a maker.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-316211 for example, such a technique is applied to operation panels of copying machines or multifunctional machines as to make distinct the position and edges of each key by imparting the key top edges of each key with an acute angle and making the key top project from the surface of the operation panel. This technique allows visually handicapped persons to recognize the boundary between each key and the operation panel clearly.
In operating an operation panel, such a visually handicapped person touches the operation panel entirely by hand to recognize the key positions and the functions of respective keys and then operates a key assigned a desired function. Therefore, it does not mean that the operability of the operation panel employing the aforementioned technique is improved, even though the positions of keys are distinct.
Also, with the keys having respective key tops positioned above the panel surface, a problem arises that operation errors and the like are likely on the contrary. For example, in copying a large-sized document, such as a book or newspaper, by a copying machine having an operation panel with its top surface positioned at substantially the same height level as the upper surface of a platen, a part of the document that extends off the platen in placing the document on the platen may touch any one of the keys on the operation panel. In such a case, it is highly possible that a key associated with a function that is unwanted by a visually handicapped person as the operator is depressed by such a part of the document. This may result in an undesirable change in the settings of the copying machine or wasteful copying.
Further, care should be taken not to give the operation panel a complicated outward appearance or impart non-handicapped persons with a sense of incongruity during operation due to too much importance attached only to the safety and operability for visually handicapped persons.
A feature of the present invention is to provide an operation panel which has an improved vertical positional relation between the key top of a key associated with an important function for operating a main apparatus and the surface of the operation panel, which does not seem to have a complicated outward appearance or impart non-handicapped persons with a sense of incongruity during operation, which is capable of protecting a visually handicapped person operating the operation panel from injury on a hand or finger and avoiding setting errors and malfunctions, and which can offer improved safety and operability.